Raiders Of The Lost Ark
In the early days of cinema, the adventure serial was just one part of what added up to a full afternoon at the movies for most families, with the full program that they were treated to including the main feature, newsreels, various cartoons and short subjects along with the serial itself, which would play out like an episodic television series (before TV was invented) and would always end each segment with a âcliffhangerâ where the hero would be in some serious trouble and one would have to wait until the ânext episodeâ to find out just how he escaped. The tradition of these serials was a proud one, and while they havenât yet had the greatest or widest exposure on either home video or blu ray, the influence that they would have on movies to come was simply enormous, with the most obvious, well known inspiration coming in 1981, when super wonder movie moguls and filmmakers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, both white hot after their 70s runs with films like Jaws, Star Wars, and Close Encounters, decided to team up to bring the action adventure serial style back and updated for modern times (with Spielberg directing and Lucas producing), and the world reacted as if this type of thing had never been done before (although it had, just not done as well as this), raking in huge amounts of cash worldwide, scoring both Best Picture and Best Director Oscar nominations, and most interestingly, garnering a rather overblown reputation amongst many film buffs and even critics who considered it to be one of THE Greatest Movies Ever Made despite some obvious flaws throughout. The lead hero role was at first offered to Tom Selleck, hot off Magnum P.I. and who was even available for the scheduled shoot as the filming was to be done during that showâs hiatus, but Selleck would instead foolishly turn it down, thinking that this type of material was no good and thus not worth his valuable time, a decision that has always haunted him ever since as it wound up costing him dearly of the A list movie star status that he had always strived for. That meant that the role would be accepted by the next choice in line (against Lucasâ wishes) who was none other than Harrison Ford, shooting into the stratosphere of beyond legendary stardom from then on for the duration of his career. His Indiana Jones became an iconic figure in its own right, but therein lies the fact that Jones was pretty much written to be your typical generic action adventure serial hero, whom (with the exception of Buster Crabbe played characters) were written to be very bland but yet obviously likable types, while here one gets the feeling that Ford was just starting to get his head wrapped around the part, still pulling it off very well but not really coming into his own skin as the character until Temple Of Doom. Regardless, itâs easy to love Indy for his dogged, never day die level of determination, his easily triggered irascible nature, and his Everyman type persona where he comes across as being just a regular (yet very tough) dude who manages to cope with each crisis as it comes up (or as he says, âIâm just making this up as I go alongâ). Teaching college courses in his day job to roomfuls of adoring, nearly all female students while displaying indignant annoyance to the ignorant government and military officials who hire him to track down the valued Lost Ark Of The Covenant (which Hitler and The Nazis are also after as they believe that it will make them invincible in battle), Ford brings all of the necessary basic ingredients to the table that he would expand upon while playing the role in years to come. Likewise, Karen Allen makes easily the best female romantic lead of the whole series as Marion Ravenwood, tough as nails, a hard drinker (for a woman), and yet fully capable of taking out bad guys on her own while still retaining her femininity and sex appeal. Itâs too bad the same cannot be said for the main villain in Paul Freemanâs Belloq, a longtime rival archaeologist to Indy with a penchant for swooping in and stealing his most valuable finds who has sold his soul to The Nazis to help them recover The Ark, something which he sees as a means to an end for the artifact recovery of the century, but Freemanâs flat tones, bland, colorless personality, and his complete lack of screen presence next to Ford like only a second or third tier character actor can do only underlines the (very) well written potential for the character, especially since the script tries extremely hard to give him some depth (including a genuine well meaning concern for the Marion character) along with some icily pointed barbs directed towards Indy himself, and so one can only wonder just what a high end, A list actor could have done with this part to make the overall movie truly more awesome. This disappointment is offset a little bit by Ronald Lacey bringing an extra dose of creepiness as the Nazi intelligence officer Toht, possessing an almost Peter Lorre like veneer as he delights in scaring the shit out of people by simply just implying what he can do to them in order to find out what he wants to know. We also get Denholm Elliot and John Rhys-Davies as the reliable Indy friends Marcus Brody and Sallah, although they both come off here as being a little too stiff but would be allowed to loosen up a LOT more with their performances when they would both return in Last Crusade. While the film is known and acclaimed for its stunning action / suspense setpieces, such as the legendary opening sequence inside a Peruvian temple, a shootout with the bad guys inside Marianâs tavern in Napal (with some surprisingly gruesome blood squibs), the battle with henchmen in downtown Cairo with the renowned finish of Indy shooting a massive swordsman dead (an on the set suggestion that saved the production both time and money), and the never ending series of fistfights and all out chases that comprise the second half of the movie, there is still a very noticeable lag in pacing during the middle portion of the film, as things get bogged down in endless (yet beautifully filmed) shots of various characters digging for the Ark. Turns out that The Nazis questing for The Ark WAS a real life event, with the confirmed Antichrist Hitler believing that obtaining such powerful artifacts like this would result in his armies being unstoppable in combat, even as the real Ark is said to be either in a U.S. military base in South America or at a church somewhere in Ethiopia. However, some controversy (with this being a PG film) has to be leveled at the climatic scene where Belloq and The Nazis finally open up The Ark to great acclaim, only to be confronted by the âWrath Of Godâ which results in a series of melting faces and exploding heads, something which seemed far too gory and scary especially to the little kids in the audience at the time and which also throws the tone of the film off into being almost akin to that of a horror film. But that doesnât really change the very self assured directing job here by Spielberg, Ford quickly taking charge of a role that would become his all time calling card, and of course the undeniable, unmistakable influence on the action movie genre that this movie has had and will continue to have (even if at least two of its own sequels have arguably surpassed it in both quality and enjoyability) with its rousing John Williams title theme march and top of the line stunts and production values, it still will always come off at worst as being a top of the line, very well made adventure story that succeeded in taking the concepts and ideas that were established and laid down in those countless old school serials all the way to the next level of inspirationâŚ
7/10